


but would you have it any other way?

by shirozora



Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, Pheels, Spoilers, oops wrote more C/C, post-major character death, the cellist in portland, the cellist is a lie, unbeta'd because lazy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-10
Updated: 2012-06-10
Packaged: 2017-11-07 10:43:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/430186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shirozora/pseuds/shirozora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"There was no cellist. The cellist was a code name."</p>
            </blockquote>





	but would you have it any other way?

**Author's Note:**

> Was busy listening to a short playlist full of Florence + The Machine songs and was suddenly struck with the need to write something C/C to "What the Water Gave Me". Bullshitted the whole thing and it's also 4:01 AM, so I'll probably wake up the next day regretting every word of the fic.
> 
> Whole thing spun out of a short exchange in my head, which was basically "There was no cellist. I'm the cellist." "You play the cello?"

After the wake Tony finds himself in close proximity with the man they call Hawkeye. Clint for short. While habitually a recluse - comes with his codename and his apparent habit of establishing a so-called nest from high up in the sky where he can watch everyone and everything - he’s also one of the most sarcastic agents Tony has ever met, so he expected some smart if praiseworthy comments when it was his turn to offer up a eulogy. He didn’t, though, and nobody seemed to expect him to give one. In fact he stayed well away from everyone, and left the room when Fury started talking about how he used to never worry about having only one eye.

“He was Clint’s handler,” Natasha told him a few seconds ago. “First person to ever give him a chance to prove himself.”

“So they were close?”

“You could say that,” she said. “I need to go make arrangements. Don’t say anything that’ll result in me grounding you for a couple months.”

“Don’t need another babysitter,” he fired back. Then, “Don’t you mean ‘killing me in my sleep’?”

Despite not knowing much of the archer besides his case files and what Natasha just told him - and why is SHIELD hiring archers, what century do they think this is? - he sidles over anyway, because hey, they’re the Avengers, they saved each other’s ass during the battle royale in Manhattan, and apparently they were both wards of Agent Phil Coulson. 

“How are you holding up, Legolas?” he asks. It’s his nickname of choice - he may build nests and like watching from high places but he’s an archer and all archers are Legolas. 

Legolas - Hawkeye - _Clint_ glances at him while clenching his hands. They still bear bruises and scabs the way Agent Hill sports a couple stitches and he has trouble getting his bruised and aching body out of bed in the morning. 

_“Did he ever threaten to taze you if you didn’t follow orders?”_ Tony’s tempted to say. _“Ever try to make him lose his cool?”_ “ or maybe _”So when did you find out his first name actually wasn’t ‘Agent’?”_ Instead, “Shame he never got to see us in action.”

Clint just nods and stares at the floor. O-kay, so he’s taking this much harder than he’s letting on. Tony sighs and looks away, squinting when he finds that the windows on the deck are facing the sun. 

He’s only here because Pepper insisted, because it’s only proper to pay respects to the man who remained unflappable in the face of the impossible. Of the others Captain Rogers is on assignment, Point Break is somewhere in space doling out Asgardian justice on his brother, and the good doctor didn’t feel it was his place to step foot on the Helicarrier again so soon after nearly wrecking it. And Pepper herself is in Portland on business - Portland. Oregon. The cellist. Did anyone contact the cellist?

“Did anyone contact the cellist?” he asks Clint. When he gets no answer he says, “Need her number, then. Do you have it?”

He gets an answer then, but not one he expects. “There was no cellist.”

“What?” He turns to Clint, who returns his look flatly. “No, there is a cellist. Maybe he didn’t talk about his personal life while at work but he told me - well, he told Pepper that there was a cellist in Portland and he only saw her occasionally, so I even - I even offered to fly him out there on my private jet after we found the Tesseract-”

Clint sighs heavily and he shuts his mouth. “There was no cellist. The cellist was a codename.”

“You’re kidding,” Tony blurts out. “Look, I know Fury’s secrets have secrets, but Coulson?”

“Anti-fraternization rule,” Clint says. “But now that he’s... never was a secret to begin with. I’m the cellist.”

He says it so frankly and it’s so out of left field that it takes a while for Tony to process their conversation. Then he blinks and says, “You play the cello?”

“No, that would be Tasha,” Clint replies. “And she knows how to kill people with it, too. Cellists use the bow to play. That’s why we chose that codename.”

“Did he have one, too?” Tony asks, rather than “You two? Really?” and “Why Portland?” and also “I _met_ the cellist.”

Clint shrugs. “Just said I have family in Portland.”

“But you don’t have-”

“ _He’s_ my family, him and Tasha.” The agent shifts uneasily on his feet and Tony suddenly remembers Natasha’s veiled threat. 

Even with that in mind he says, “When you - when Loki - he didn’t act any different while you were MIA. He was smiling when I made my offer-”

“He’s a professional, Stark,” Clint says. “We all are. We don’t stop functioning just because someone goes down. We can’t afford to.”

For once Tony doesn’t have anything to say. He thinks about snippets of personal life that Coulson let slip through his professionalism, like an average childhood in Boston and a deep love of donuts and an endless supply of perfectly wrinkle-free suits and cellists in Portland. He thinks about Coulson being stupid and trying to play hero by confronting Loki all by himself during the chaos - and Clint was the vanguard, Clint blew up the turbine and led the assault on the Helicarrier - and how he died when he didn’t have to. 

_”Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes.”_

And he died believing that Tony was one, died believing that Clint and Natasha could be heroes. He died so that they could band together to save the Earth, and the cellist in Portland who was actually in Manhattan knocking the Chitauri out of the sky with a very different kind of bow.

His phone, which he actually took the time to set to “Vibrate” and not “Shoot To Thrill”, goes off and he fishes it out of his pocket. It’s Pepper and she says she’ll be in Manhattan in twenty, that Bruce might have blown up a room on one of the R & D floors, and to give Clint her condolences. He frowns - she was in on it, too? - and shoves it back in his pocket.

“Pepper offers her condolences,” he says. “And, ah, I need to go. Got some rebuilding to do. Nothing Hulk-related though; just some science gone wrong. You’ll be all right, right? Don’t need a handkerchief, a shoulder to cry on?”

“I’m a professional, Mr. Stark,” Clint says. “I can handle this.”

 _Sure you can,_ Tony thinks. There’s no mistaking the look in the agent’s eyes. “Just... call if you need me. Or have Natasha call. Someone. Anyone. Did I tell you I’m remodeling? Every Avenger gets a floor. Should stop by to check out the blueprints; heard you like windows.”

He stops rambling when Natasha appears at Clint’s side and gives him a wary look. Knowing when to bow out, he turns and leaves the deck, heads down to where his suit’s waiting on standby. As he leaves the Helicarrier for the short flight to his tower-in-progress he wonders what else Pepper knew of Coulson’s life and how people like Clint can carry on after suffering such a personal loss. 

But after nearly killing himself to end Loki’s invasion he thinks that maybe he understands a little bit about the sacrifices everyone makes to keep this world safe.


End file.
